I pride myself on being able to write “multi-tasking” copy – like the headline above. Yes, this post is both a call for guest bloggers and a call for great commercial freelancing business subjects/ideas/strategies in your comments.

I gotta say, I’ve truly been blown away by the brilliant, wise, and insightful blog commentary from you guys these past 11 weeks since blog launch. In less than 90 days, we’ve built a pretty amazing knowledge base on a variety of subjects in the commercial freelancing arena – over 350 comments in all at press time! And so I want to open the floor to your contributions. And yes, I won’t lie – it’d be nice to get a bit ‘o help in cranking these things out regularly. Which, of course, is consistent with the collaborative nature of my books, ezine, and now, the blog. One “well-fed writer’s” perspective is only so tasty and satisfying.

So, what would you share? Even if you don’t plan on guest blogging, give us a snapshot of the most important lesson you’d share with your fellow FLCWs (freelance commercial writers for those new to the neighborhood…).

Perhaps a prospecting strategy that’s borne much fruit over the years?

An unusual market (if you’re willing to reveal it)?

A particularly great success story?

A fabulous tip that’s made you more efficient, better networked, more profitable?

An insight into the business that’s made a huge difference for you?

Perhaps a subject you’d like to see me or someone else cover in the blog?

If you DO want to expand that gem of a comment into a full-fledged guest post, take 400-600 words to tell your story. And you know this blog’s drill: questions at the end to pull out the golden nuggets. Make it a subject with “legs” – one that can spawn a rich discussion.

What’s in it for you? Besides rocketing prestige in the eyes of your peers? You mean, that’s not enough? 😉 Seriously, got a book, ebook, ezine, report, service, blog, web site (writing-related, preferably…) you want to promote? As a quid pro quo for sharing your goodies, I welcome your plug at the end of the piece.

So, comment away, and if you want to do a post, send your idea to me at peter@wellfedwriter.com.

I would have to say the greatest success story I had was when I was first starting out as a freelancer. I had been writing and editing technical manuals but with 4 kids under the age of 3, I wanted more family time, so I left the company I had been working for. I went to a mutual friend who had been writing from home for a while and asked her for some tips. She went one better, she had a client who needed some stuff written, but she was going to turn them down because she was too busy. She gave the client to me. The client landed up being one of my biggest money makers for the next 4 years, generating $30K alone in one year, for about 10 hours of work a week. It was the confidence builder I needed to get out and market myself as a serious commercial writer.

Keep in mind I’m just starting out, but my first three paying jobs have come from just telling people what I’m doing. My best friend is a graphic designer that referred me to another designer. That introduction has resulted in tagline and brochure work for two different projects.
I’m producing a newsletter for my sister who’s the Executive Director for an assisted living facility. We were talking one day, and she complained about the hassle of putting together her monthly newsletter. “I can handle that for you sis” and after some negotiation (my sister is tougher than I thought) I’ve scored a monthly gig.
Yesterday I got a call from a company that’s looking to build a landing page for mortgage services. He had gotten my name from the company who handles my current employer’s web site. We have the same account manager, and I’d mentioned in passing that I was writing copy as a part time business one day at lunch. He’s seen the pages I’ve written for our site, and suggested the guy give me a call. The call was very promising, and I’m confident I’ll get the work.
I’m a little amazed because this has all come together in the last four weeks. It started about three weeks after I started telling people about my new venture. I know I have a lot of work ahead of me to get where I want to be (full time FLCW), but this has shown me there is work out there. Is it super-high paying, glamorous, Fortune 500 work? Nope. But it’s paying professional rates, and they are great portfolio builders. Speaking of portfolios, mine is very limited, but I haven’t had one person ask for it yet…Hmmm.

Pete. My advice to budding freelancers is to be prepared when opportunities arrive. Make sure that you have resources available when it knocks at your door. I team with everyone from graphic artists and photographers to flash programmers and competitive intelligence experts. The key is to be plugged in. Ironically, my biggest need/challenge right now is finding commercial freelance writing help, my own bread and butter. It’s the one resource that I’ve neglected to recruit, since it’s my own area of expertise (http://www.linkedin.com/in/kirkrichardson). Now, with more opportunities than time, I’m scrambling to find a good, solid industrial/manufacturing copywriter or two to join my ad hoc teams. (Know any?)

How do you handle opportunity overload without turning away customers and great prospects? I guess that’s a problem a lot of people would love to be burdened with.

Keep up the good work. Blogs are all about building a communicative community, and you’ve done that with TWFW. What a helpful resource!

Thanks Craig! Off to a MOST promising start, it would appear… 😉 Thanks for sharing it, and I love the part about how no one’s asked for your portfolio, Just underscores my assertion that clients don’t want to hunt around a long time to find a writer and dig too deep when they DO find one. I’ve heard that a LOT.

And thank Kirk for the great insights. The teaming thing is truly th gift that keeps on giving…

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Meet the Author

Veteran commercial freelancer Peter Bowerman is the author of the award-winning Well-Fed Writer titles, how-to standards in the field of lucrative commercial freelancing-writing for businesses and for hourly rates of $50-$125+ an hour.Learn more at:The Well-Fed Writer